Welcome to The beekeeper’s garden blog

Nicola posing on the Bee Mosaic for a feature in the daily telegraph. 

After a long and tortuous journey the low loader  finally made it to Hampton Court. The verdant decoration isn’t deliberate- it’s just a reflection of the number of branches which were snagged en route.  There were a few hairy moments when it seemed unlikely that they would have enough clearance to get under bridges, but they managed… by inches.

Then came the seemingly impossible task of lowering the roof onto the apiary base in strong winds.  The pictures speak for themselves.  The roof swayed alarmingly as it was being lowered and the sharp edges of the cedar shingles nearly took off the tops of the apple trees. 

The space ship has been crated because we were uncertain whether  to risk flying it to Hampton Court on it’s maiden voyage. But we are having the devil of a job arranging suitable transport.  We had arranged for it to go on a flat bed lorry, but as it’s 4 metres wide it would take up two lanes and require a police escort if placed flat.  If placed upright it would be too tall to pass under the bridges. After a lot of heartache we sourced a low loader- double the original estimate, but they can do the job tomorrow. Phew!

The finishing touches to the Apiary base are being applied by none other than other than John Elles, drummer with Heroes of She,  who, for those readers who are not from these parts, are the best band in the North West.  Catch them at the Penny Bank, Lancaster on Thursday 25th June at 9pm.  Or at http://www.heroesofshe.com/

At the Mammoth Onion. These photos are of some of the climbing vegetables which will cover our Pergola. The gourds are double the size of a week ago.  We are very fortunate in having the country’s leading vegetable growers right on our door-step.  http://www.mammothonion.co.uk/ They won the Silver-Knightian award at Chelsea this year and produced the most amazing garden for Daylsford Organic the previous year.  Their policy is to have back-up plants in every stage of development, so that they won’t be caught out by adverse weather, disease or any of the multitude of vagaries which are there to trip us up.

Phil is putting the finishing touches to the Apiary roof.  Or is he about to launch into outer space?

This picture of Phil the joiner applying cedar boards to the base of the Apiary roof gives some idea of the scale  of the structure and the quality of the workmanship.

The second photo is of the lantern which will sit on the top of the roof and through which the bees will enter.

Meanwhile the base is being patiently painted  with Farrow and Ball, French Gray paint by Norman at the Damson Dene Hotel and the whole will be delivered to site on Tuesday.

“At Yewbarrow House, with a very impressive film crew from the BBC. They arrived at 8am, got straight down to work and we spent the next seven hours recording a few minutes of film.  They were great people to work with- patient (they needed to be), hard working, dedicated and good-natured throughout. A blazingly hot sunny day with lots of bees about, which they were very pleased to capture on film. Then they went with Nicola for more filming at Overton with the bee-keepers who put Nicola through her course.
The film is for a piece in the Hampton Court coverage during Show week- we are one of only two show gardens which they are show-casing.
The guys in the photos are Richard Holmes, the producer, Paul the cameraman and Adrian the sound engineer.  Paul empathised with our Victorian theme as he has a business selling reclaimed Victorian Terracotta plant pots, which are known as Long Toms- http://www.long-toms.co.uk/index.htm”

“Photos of the mosaic from
Maggy Howarth. It looks just magnificent.”